The present invention relates generally to an appliance apparatus and more particularly to a clothing appliance apparatus including a bonded polymeric bracket or support.
It is known to have an appliance, such as a washing machine or dryer, which has a glass door or lid. Such doors typically include polymeric frames or bezels that are mechanically connected by way of screws in order to sandwich external and backside surfaces of the glass lid adjacent its periphery. Often such frames include handles, striker latches and metallic hinge brackets which are separately screwed on to the polymeric frame. One such example can be found within U.S. Pat. No. 8,297,085 entitled “Washing Machine” which issued to Kim et al. on Oct. 30, 2012, and is incorporated by reference herein.
It is also known to adhesively bond a stamped metal bracket onto a glass appliance lid. The stringent bleach vapor and corrosion resistance requirements for appliances, however, require expensive and relatively heavy e-coating of the metal brackets. This device is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 8,276,409 entitled “Glass Appliance Cover with Bonded Hardware” which issued to Tooker on Oct. 2, 2012, which is incorporated by reference herein.
In accordance with the present invention, an appliance apparatus includes an adhesively bonded bracket or support. In another aspect, a clothing apparatus includes a moveable transparent panel, such as a glass door or lid, which has a polymeric support or bracket adhesively bonded thereto. A further aspect provides polyurethane adhesive pellets bonding a polymeric hinge bracket to only a backside of a glass appliance panel. A method of manufacturing an appliance apparatus is also disclosed.
The appliance apparatus of the present invention is advantageous over traditional constructions. For example, the polymeric support or bracket of the present apparatus is bleach and corrosion resistant without requiring expensive and heavy coatings. Furthermore, the present apparatus is advantageously injection molded from an engineering grade polymer to have a stiff and rigid shape with offset angled walls and spaced apart ribs extending therebetween, with optional holes extending therethrough created in the same process as the flange and wall. Moreover, the heat activated adhesive pellets used to bond the present bracket to the transparent panel do not exhibit the typical messy application and end of cycle purging otherwise required with pumped bead adhesives and the like. Additional advantages and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description and appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.